TNAG-1845-FCO40-2620-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 109

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the sort of question which we asked in the 1987 review becацзе there we laid out 29 one of the option to have an element of direct election and for people to give their views on timing. The result was. 23 I have said. very divided. even on the question of whether an element of direct election. not universal suffrage. should be introduced in 1938 or later.

Michael Jopling:

Sir. if I could ask you some questions about the process of public consultation and the views and the wishes of the people there. During the four months when there was the consultation going on with regard to the Green Paper which led up to the 1988 White Paper I gather that 111.589 written gubmissions were received and that compares with the previous 1984 Green Paper on the same subject which attracted only 364 submissions and the assessment in the late part of 1984 of the acceptability of the draft agreement on the future of Hong Kong attracted. relatively speaking a small number 2.494. Now

do You believe that the consultation process which has led production of the 1988 White Paper accurately assessed the views of the Hong Kong people and also do you believe that the proposals in the White Paper do accurately reflect the wishes of the people there.

Governor:

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The figures that you've just quoted are indeed very remarkable Figures because they do show the intensity interest 2.15 the 1987 consultation process and in comparison which was making. as I mentioned earlier, really a very fundamental suggestion of the first step towards having slections in legislature. It ie remarkable how much more interest there was in 1987. I think that is a reflection of the fact that there has been intense debate in Hong Kong. an intense debate and lobbying from all sides of the argument. On consultation. what I would say is that the Hong Kong Government made the maximum effort it could to try to involve as many people as possible in that consultation exercise in terms of publicity. encouraging people to put in their views to the group which was looking at the various submissions put in and in terms Of assessing that the office which was doing it, which was set up to operate independently of the administration and then to be looked at by outside individuals to check that that's how they had behaved. they simply listed every piece of information that had come in on the subject of the consultation throughout the whole process and it Then on the basis of an assessment of all that information that took our decision. Yes. I do believe that we took a decision which is accurately as we could reflect views of the people of Hong Kong. Now of Course there are people in Hong Kong who were not happy with decision because there were people who were arguing for a move which should Come much earlier and I wouldn't expect them to be satisfied with the decision to make the move in 1991. We had to make a decision on what reflected the views of the whole community as best we could.

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David Howell:

Could we then now turn. thank you for that sir David. could we turn to the objective on which all sides agreed on. the smooth transfer.

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